BUMP (Boston Urban Music Project)

Dr. Georgiary Bledsoe

Dr. Georgiary Bledsoe is a musicologist who earned the B.A. and M.A. at Stanford and the Ph.D. at Duke, where she was the Mary Lou Williams Instructor of Music. The American Musicological Society awarded her the Howard Mayer Brown Award for her work on the ethnographic history of gospel music in St. Louis. She was awarded a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Brandeis University with a joint appointment in Music, African & African American Studies, and American Studies. She also taught African American Music at Tufts University. She has lectured widely and is a published author. She holds a MA teacher’s license in music and prior to moving to Boston taught PreK-8th grade music at a private preparatory school in CA. Her community work spans service as a PTA president, in site-based school governance, and as a volunteer conductor for the Boston Community Choir. She has been a church musician from Jr. High School to the present, most recently at Charles St. AME Church. She is the founder and director of BUMP (Boston Urban Music Project) and the founder and CEO of BMC, a consulting firm that specializes in music education solutions. Raised in East St. Louis, IL, she is the youngest of seventeen children. In a city labeled by the national press as the crime capital of the country, community members gave her the precious gifts of time, energy and attention. That environment of adults invested in the neighborhood youth has made all the difference in her life. She strives to pay that investment forward.